The federal government made nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars in “improper payments” in the last fiscal year, a congressional watchdog agency estimated.
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report unveiled last week said 14 agencies reported a total of $236 billion in botched payments in fiscal 2023.
Here, “improper payments” were defined as “those that should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount.”
GAO said agencies reported that $175 billion, or over 74% of the total, were attributed to overpayments.
The total represented an $11 billion decrease from fiscal 2022, but GAO demonstrated in a graphs how “improper payments” have, on average, risen over the past 20 years.
The federal government has made an estimated $2.7 trillion in improper payments in the last 20 fiscal years—including $236 billion in FY23.
Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our…
